Eight-armed animal preceded dinosaurs

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Scientists have discovered what they believe is an eight-armed creature, which colonised a large section of the world's oceans over 300 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged.

The findings represent the first comparable animal fossils from the Ediacaran Period, 635 to 541 million years ago, which appear in two drastically different preservation environments - black shale of South China and quartz rock of South Australia.

Very interesting find. The age of this fossil is absolutely staggering.

Is it just me or is this animal a bit Lovecraftian?

Fossil Cthulu!

it is just a squid.

nice to see those creatures survive through the ages.

NICE! It fed by osmosis!? And people say we can't learn through osmosis, either...

Nice to know they found this and it's age guessimate.

[edit on 4-11-2008 by SolarSeaman]

Great find .... it sure took long long time to find this stuff.
I wonder if someone knows how old was the oldest animal fossil ever found?

OOPS ... i went through the article one more time and i bet those are the oldest
Thanks anyway